No. 3 Wright State 4, No. 5 Cleveland State 3
Cleveland State struck first but the Raiders posted a big fifth inning to capture a 4-3 victory Friday afternoon of the Horizon League Softball Championship.
The Vikings put a run across the plate after Woodard kicked-off the rally with a single through the left side of the field. A fielder’s choice followed by a Joecken fly-out to right field that advanced runners allowed a fielding error on Gairing’s hit to account for the RBI.
Both offensives would remain silent in the scoring category the next couple innings until Wright State mustered up a rally in the bottom of the fifth that off of a Salyers single to the pitcher. Oakley singled on a bunt and Floyd came up big for the Raiders with a single through the left side to notch the first RBI of the ballgame for Wright State. Marquez then hit a single up the middle a couple batters later to pull two more runs over the plate and eventually scored herself on a wild pitch to tab the fourth and final run of the inning.
Cleveland State threatened in the sixth and seventh with a solo home run by McNew in the sixth over the right field fence. In the final inning, the Vikings scored with bases loaded on a Knight ground out to shortstop but failed to capitalize leaving three runners on base.
All five hits for Cleveland State were spread out while Wright State’s Marquez led all batters with two hits and two RBI.
Sharp picked up the win in the ballgame with a complete game showing, fanning two batters.
No. 6 Valparaiso 1, No. 1 UIC 0
In a pitcher’s duel Friday afternoon, No. 6 Valparaiso continued its upset streak and defeated No. 1 UIC 1-0.
The ballgame saw 20 strikeouts, just four hits and only one run in the seven innings.
Valparaiso scored the only run of the contest in the top of the third inning when Trepanier reached base on a fielding error, then stole second and eventually scored off a double to the right field fence by Stewart.
From there out, the Crusaders’ Weissenhofer and Flames’ Heflin battled it out in the circle exchanging nearly flawless innings for their teams.
UIC threatened in the sixth inning when Mack-Miller started with a free pass and Soppett singled to right field. Capocci singled to center field to load up the bases for the Flames but the next two batters failed to take advantage of the remaining two outs of the inning.
Despite the loss, Heflin tossed a one-hitter for UIC while Valparaiso’s Weissenhofer allowed just three hits in the victory.
No. 2 Wright State 3, No. 1 UIC 1
Wright State held on to defeat top-seeded UIC 3-1 after scoring early in the final ballgame of Friday’s contests.
Susor opened up the hitting for Wright State with a single to the pitcher but got out at second on a fielder’s choice by Marquez. After stealing second, Gunther doubled to left center to bring in the run and notch the RBI.
The Raiders added on to their lead in the top of the fifth inning when Gunther received a free pass and then advanced to second on a pass ball and third on a sacrifice bunt. Salyers scored Gunther on a single to third base and Salyers eventually scored unearned on a fielding error to make the game 3-0.
UIC created a scoring opportunity in the final inning as Nagle hit a shot to center field for a double as Capocci hit her in on a ground out to the pitcher. With the game at 3-1, the Flames got runners on first and second off of a Wright State error and single by Cairns but could not bring in either run to tie up the game to go into extras.
Sharp went the distance for Wright State to collect her second win on the day.
